What motivates us?
Anyone starting a journey to better health needs their own personal motivation. If you found this blog, you may already have found yours.
As with any resolution, we try to come up with good reasons to improve our health. It could be just that, improving our health, being fit for kids and grandkids, avoiding serious health complications, losing weight, or even avoiding medical bills.
But all the best reasons in the world crumble when we fail despite best efforts.
We know what to eat. The guidelines tell us what's healthy, to eat low fat, in moderation and do lots of exercise. They tell us to eat lots of whole grains and fruit, but we still gain weight. It seems hopeless.
We make plans, eat healthy, lose some weight. A few weeks in, we start craving our favorite foods. We are hungry all the time and feel sluggish, cold and just miserable. The prospect of losing weight suddenly seems less important. Our weight stalls, all willpower evaporates. We gain the weight back and then some.
A few months or years later, we have to shop for bigger clothes yet again, so we make new plans. This time we use a diet program. It tells us exactly what we can eat, and we follow the plan to a T. We lose 20 pounds and want to celebrate. Just one exception, because we deserve it. Next thing we know, we can't stop ourselves and go off the rails again, all willpower lost again.
How can this happen though? We follow the dietary guidelines; we eat less and move more. Why can we not stick to it. Why can others eat in moderation? What is wrong with us?
It turns out, nothing is wrong with us. It's not a character flaw. We tend to store fat easier than others. That's it. The solution is not to eat less, but to stop eating the foods that make us store fat. Carbs have always been known to as fattening carbohydrates. It may be as simple as cutting out sugars and processed food, or we may have to go ultra-low carb with daily intermittent fasting. It really is that simple.
Circling back to the initial question, what really motivates us? It's hope. Once we know that there is a way that does not require constant willpower, that does not keep us hungry and fatigued, once we learn how simple it can be, we know there is hope. We can change things and turn our health around; we can do it.
Following a ketogenic diet, the cravings will subside, we will not feel hungry and miserable. There are even keto treats to celebrate accomplishments, but as we go along, food becomes less important, and we find other ways to celebrate. We no longer have to eat less, in moderation, or deprive ourselves. In other words, this WOE (way of eating) is sustainable.
My glimmer of hope was a video by Dr. Stephen Pinney of Virta Health. He explained how we can eat, be satiated and content, feel great, not be hungry, not be craving foods ... all the while losing weight and dramatically improving our health. He was spot on. I followed his advice and never looked back.
After 3 decades of failed diets, the benefits of keto made sense. I was pumped, I had hope. This hope motivated me and paved the way to my success.
This may sound like a cliché, but it's true. If I can do it, so can you. Be hopeful, trust the process, and you will succeed too.
For continued support, visit our Facebook group. You will find lots of people with similar struggles, similar stories, similar success.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/reversinginsulinresistance
Final thought is a quote by Dr. Sarah Hallberg: Reversing Type 2 diabetes starts by ignoring the guidelines.
Written by Roxana Soetebeer
Published: August 7th 2021
